Bigger, better, faster, more //Bear with us as we build up the Sidepodcast infrastructure

This weekend we're planning on moving sidepodcast.com to a new collection of web and database servers. It's been on our to do list for a while, but the recent popularity of live commenting during race weekends has forced us to get on with it.

Falling down

Following on from the Malaysian GP this site struggled to cope with the 400+ comments posted in the space of a few hours, and rather indignantly fell over. After much analysis it seems the weight of comments wasn't so much of a problem, rather the large amount of spam that seems to arrive in waves, coupled with some search engine spiders doing their thing.

Given that the last two things are pretty much out of our control, we thought we ought to do something about it (although I suspect a total of 400 comments will take some beating), so we're moving Sidepodcast onto the same Media Temple servers that currently host F1 Minute. MT have had a slightly ropey time of it lately, but their support and response times have been second to none throughout. Their databases are also scalable, so in theory as soon as the site gets busier we can add more and more, and we get guranteed uptime.

Keeping up

All of this means that things might go a bit wonky around these parts during the next 24 hours. Hopefully the transition will be a smooth one, but I can imagine a few images will probably go missing (and then some).

If you're still using the original F1 Minute embed codes (e.g the really old information from last year), you may find the player on your site doesn't work during the rest of the weekend, but it'll come back soon enough. If you wish to ensure zero downtime, we recommend updating to code detailed on the F1 Minute web site.

Losing touch

For a brief period we're going to switch off commenting here. This is too ensure nothing gets out of sync, as some people will point to the new servers before others (depending on your ISP). Incoming email will also be temporarily queued, but not lost.

The best way to keep in touch during the next two days is probably via the Facebook group, but we'll also be updating Twitter regularly.